The Breakdown
Living with music, living through music, living inside music are descriptions which could all get thrown around when trying to capture Passepartout Duo’s relationship with their sound art. The sonic partnership between pianist Nicoletta Favari and percussionist Christopher Salvito which began in 2015, thrives on constant travel, seeking out new collaborations as well as inspirational settings for recording and performance. It also revolves around an inventive drive to develop new tools to craft their mesmerising soundscapes.
So far, on what they see as their “nearly continuous world tour”, Passepartout Duo have taken in fifty-four countries from China to Tunisia, Peru to Austria taking their hand built electronic instruments across continents on buses, trains and in dusty vans. Along the way they’ve documented their journey with a sequence of fine albums, each shaped by different instrumental as well as locational influences. Their 2020 debut LP ‘Vis-à-Vis’ featured the glockboard and other sound makers made from foraged wood and metal scrap. On ‘Daylighting’ from 2021 they integrated textiles with synthesiser interfaces (yes a ‘fuzzy synth’ and ‘limina-phone’ do now exist) and 2022’s ‘Circo Pobre’ explored the capacity of an electronic instrument they called the ‘Chromaplane’.
Two years on we have Passepartout Duo’s latest release ‘Radio Yugawara’, a collaboration with renowned Japanese ambients Makoto Inoue and Yasushi Yamashita (aka Inoyama Land), recorded at Makoto’s home studio in Yugawara and available via Tonal Union. Inoyama Land have roots in the emergent era of Japanese new age with their first seminal album from the eighties, ‘Danzindan-Pojidon’, being produced by the illustrious Haruomi Hosono. They went on to work with other key figures from the scene including Hiroshi Yoshimura before focusing on installation specific soundscapes and a long-term dedication to the development of their “environmental music“. No wonder then that working with Inoyama Land was on the Passepartout Duo’s bucket list, there’s something almost symbiotic about the connection between both pairing’s intricate, minimalistic expressionism.
‘Radio Yugawara’ captures that interwoven mingling of delicate artistry from the first clear breath of opener Strange Clouds, where pattering, melodic synth tones give air to a tuneful simplicity. It’s an exquisite, fluffy warm welcome, softly brushed on Favari and Salvito’s chromaplane interfaces. Such wrap around ambience regularly oozes from the album’s eleven pieces. The intricate Mosaic builds from a gentle piano chord sequence as strands of brief synth phrases beguilingly interconnect while Observatory reaches out further from the light xylophone pulse to a drifting, Riley-esque organ loop. Yes, the track sparkles magically.
Subtle surprises also emerge from the quartet. Simoom seems almost abstract with its eerie organ patterns, echoing whispers and cavernous choral undertones. There are growls and throbs in the tune’s shadows and the synth snippets nibble ominously at the slow tide of sound. Then there’s the percussive, flighty Xiloteca which introduces some rare bass resonance to its complex YMO electronica and robotic vocal calls. The music is bustling and vibrant, a soundscape that seems to imagine some busy, futuristic village square.
Throughout ‘Radio Yugawara’ the four collaborators weave their individual patterns together with a playful spontaneity, feeding off the album’s recording environment. Makoto Inoue’s studio is located in the same space as his family run kindergarten and this Passepartout Duo/ Inoyama Land statement was made in a room which doubles as the school auditorium. The set up for the session also aimed to draw from such surroundings, four tables arranged in a circle stacked with children’s instruments with racks of bells, chimes, wood blocks and shakers around the periphery. Pitching their electronic gizmos amongst such a playground certainly impacted on the quartet’s music which regularly beams out, joyful and fresh.
Take the spring heeled skip of the dancing Abstract Pets as it whirls beneath a soprano monotone then ends with the scuttle of footsteps. Or catch the innocent piano phrase at the centre of Solivago from which the four players coax sinuous threads of harmony. Perhaps Tangerine Fields is as darkly dramatic as things get on this collection. The piece possesses the orchestrated, cinematic sweep of Basinski at his most restrained but even here a homely melodica brings a less dense, more personal touch. Generally there’s an unhurried uplift consistently reaching out to the listener throughout the main ‘Radio Yugawara’ broadcast.
All too soon Axolotl Dreams is calmly drawing a line under this beautiful project, spreading layers of synth-led harmonising over a simple glockenspiel pattern before disappearing as a compressed squiggle of electronics. It’s some achievement that Passepartout Duo and Inoyama Land are able to distill their three hours plus of improvised music making into such a superbly balanced, engaging album. In doing so they still manage to convey the distinctive energy that they generated when playing together live in the room. That kinship, that shared experience is not lost on anyone tuning in and if nothing else ‘Radio Yugawara’ reminds the listener of the importance of making time and taking time.
Get your copy of ‘Radio Yugawara‘ by Passepartout Duo and Inoyama Land from your local record store or direct from Tonal Union HERE
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